After a downward trend in 2019 and 2020, the number of assaults on doctors is on the rise again, according to the results of the Observatory for the Safety of Doctors for the year 2021, revealed by the National Council of the Order. , Tuesday, July 26. With 1,009 incident reports, compared to 955 in 2020, an increase of 5.6%, 2021 is thus the fourth most violent year for doctors since the launch of the observatory in 2003.
Verbal assaults represent 70% of reported incidents, the highest rate since 2011. They too are on the rise, with the order accounting for 710 in 2021 compared to 637 in 2020. Complainants report insults, threats or, in some cases , telephone or Internet harassment. Physical assaults account for 9% of reported cases. In 6% of them, intentional blows and injuries were inflicted. Five cases involved sequestration of the practitioner. In addition, 10% of declarations relate to theft or attempted theft and 8% to acts of vandalism.
Pandemic obliges, 59 incidents originate from the health crisis: 35 concern a refusal to respect health rules such as wearing a mask. Vaccination has also been a source of tension: 24 are linked to patients who are opposed to it.
Once again, general practitioners are particularly affected since they represent 61% of cases (although they constitute 43% of the practitioner population). However, there is an increase in the number of incidents involving specialists: 55 cardiologists reported having suffered violence, compared to 21 in 2020, a figure which has therefore more than doubled in one year. They are the specialists most affected along with ophthalmologists and psychiatrists, i.e. “practitioners whose appointments are the hardest to get”comments the Dr Jean-Jacques Avrane, president of the departmental council of the order of physicians of Paris, at a press conference on Tuesday morning. Next come occupational medicine, dermatologists and gynecologists.
Few complaints filed
The violence recorded mainly concerns exercise in the city center (51%). However, incidents in the suburbs are increasing this year, with 22% of physical and verbal attacks recorded, compared to 16% the previous year. In rural areas, the phenomenon remains stable, at 21%. As in 2020, the Hauts-de-France region is the one with the highest number of declared attacks (172 against 166 the previous year). The Nord department alone accounts for 139. The Ile-de-France (135), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (119) and Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’azur (113) regions follow.
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